1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device, and particularly to an electronic device which has a plurality of hardware which operate in accordance with one or more control programs, the electronic device operating as a predetermined model in accordance with model dependent data which differs for each model of electronic device.
In addition, the present invention relates to an electronic device which has a plurality of hardware which operate in accordance with one or more control programs.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to an data storage medium.
In addition, the present invention relates to an electronic device which has hardware which uses a plurality of models in common and which can operate as a predetermined model in accordance with model data which is unique for each model.
2. Background Information
Electronic devices which comprise a plurality of hardware, a control circuit board for controlling the operation of the hardware, memory which is located on the control circuit board and which stores a predetermined control program, and a controller which executes the control program, are now in common use.
These electronic devices are for example image forming devices such as copiers, and may contain an image forming unit, a photosensitive drum, and a charged coupled device (CCD) or the like, and are constructed so as to collaborate and operate by execution of a control program.
With these conventional types of image forming devices, different models of hardware are used in common, and technology is already known for causing identical hardware to function as different models by means of model dependent data. Model dependent data includes a control program which is common for each model, and data or the like which differs for each model.
Furthermore, with this type of image forming device, it has already been proposed to store image dependent data for a plurality of models in the memory of one device, and to allow this data to be appropriately selected (for instance, refer to Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. H6-149550). With this device, a change to a different model can easily be selected, and thus the task of updating a control program and the model dependent data in conjunction with a standard model change can be simplified, and errors which may occur during this operation can be prevented.
However, if the control program or the model dependent data is overwritten with unanticipated content by unreliable users and dealers, the setup for other data and hardware which was to have been modified by this change will remain in its original condition and problems will occur. As a result, there is a possibility that the image quality may be degraded, or identification of the cause of an equipment malfunction or the like may be difficult.
Moreover, when a control program or the like of a low-grade model is overwritten as that of a high-grade model and sold at a low price, the manufacture of the device and the authorized dealer will not be able to receive the appropriate profits.
Note that technology has already been proposed for a conventional image forming device which connects to an external device and acquires the control program of that external device from the external device in order to acquire the functions had by that external device (for instance, refer to Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. H7-46361).
With an image forming device having hardware which is common between models as described above, the selling agent or the authorized dealer or the like will try to have different models of equipment in stock, even if the equipment has identical hardware, so that they can meet the various needs of each customer, and therefore the inventory quantities thereof may increase.
However, the technology proposed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. H7-46361 is nothing more than acquiring an external device which has certain functions in order to realize these functions which could not be had by the image forming device alone, and therefore is not a means of resolving this problem.
An object of the present invention is to prevent model dependent data from being easily changed in electronic devices which have a plurality of hardware which function as predetermined models in accordance with the model dependent data.
Another object of the present invention is to prevent the model dependent data from easily being changed in electronic devices which have hardware which identifies the model and functions as a predetermined model.
Yet another object of the present invention is to resolve inventory problems arising from having multiple models of equipment for electronic devices which have hardware which is common between different models.
This invention addresses these objects well as other objects, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.